Coming across my desktop today (Monday, the 18th of January, 2016) was an article from Freedom Outpost News, in a link in an e-mail from the organization, one of the “alternative media” and generally libertarian (minarchist) in nature. The story was reposted from Shoebat.Com. That is a strongly anti-Islamic website.

The story reported that Muslims in Switzerland are demanding that the Swiss National Flag (a white cross on red) be replaced by something more “representative” of modern Switzerland, and reported that many Swiss were very upset and angry about the demand.

I started tracing it back through the links, finally arriving at the Aargauer Zeitung, a German-language Swiss newspaper, which originally reported the story about the demand to change the flag. But wait! It was reported by the Zeitung on the 18th of September, 2011. That is right: more than FOUR years ago. Published again as big, new news, intending to rile us up, on the 18th of January, 2016.

What kind of garbage do these news media, alternative or not, think that they can feed us? Are we stupid, gullible children, to accept this? Idiocy like this makes me sick, and makes ALL these websites worthless jokes. Can we believe ANYthing that they say?

Listen, all you idiots out there: DON’T PUBLISH SOMETHING THAT YOU DON’T RESEARCH! YOU are only trashing your own reputation, destroying your own credibility. If you want people to pay attention to your writing, your websites, and your recommendations, stop doing stupid things like this.

(Disclaimer: if ANY reader finds something that I’ve published that is wrong, or too stale (and I don’t point that out) PLEASE do so.

Mama’s Note: I completely agree. I do my best to vet things, but just don’t have the time generally to look at all the links. If you find something questionable, please let us know. Your comments are always welcome. We do care.

4 Responses to Are We Stupid? “Alternative Media” Apparently Thinks So

For the past years, I had been questioning Alt news sources. You cannot tell who is posting, what is the truth and where they are getting their info. I think there is a lot of shills out there doing their best to drive a wedge between a lot of us on the other side. We MUST be very careful. Freedom lost will be hard to gain back

Used to be that alternate news sources were more or less validated by links to “established” news sources. I trust neither of them much anymore, even for — or maybe especially for – the really big stories. These days I question, first, whether or how much the situation or person might affect my own life, or that of my family. If there is a potential for harm, I keep looking. Not that it matters much. Nothing I can do about it, usually.

The thing that really reduced how much I even bother to look is the fact that all of the “news” items seem to be written by the same people, from the same cookbook… and almost none of them can spell, complete a rational sentence or form useful paragraphs. I sometimes wonder if they just have a room full of monkeys and typewriters at last…

My lady and her friends fall for this quite often. I tell them to always note the author and research the story. And I tell them to distance themselves from the ‘news groups’ (the name they use) which are well known to recycle old stories as new.

Yes, they may think the reader is stupid but they do get away with it. A purview of the comments to such articles will attest to that. I do not know what to do except to continue to expose the ruse to as may people as I can and to urge each of those to be less gullible.